U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla) Asked to Help Save the St. Johns River
July 24th, 2010
From the 20th floor of the Wachovia “Gulf Life” Building, the Jacksonville staff of Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla) saw sheets white foam blow across the St. Johns River and become wedged in heaps against bulkheads on the north bank of the river. Up close, the foam looked like egg whites whipped to stiff peaks. A man in Fleming Island said the stuff was three-feet thick. An industrial chemist sampled some foam near the Shand’s Bridge with a swimming pool test kit, and he said it contained cyranic acid, a pool chemical.
The following day on Friday, Nelson boarded a water taxi to get a better look himself. He said he wanted to take a sample directly to the United States Environmental Protection Agency for testing. St. Johns Riverkeeper Neil Armingeon joined Nelson in the bow of the boat with a cluster of television cameras, photographers and reporters trained on them. The state Department of Environmental Protection Northeast Florida Director Gregory Strong, the city’s Environmental and Compliance Director Ebeneezer Gujjarlapudi and the city’s Environmental Quality Division Chief Vince Sebold were also onboard.
Armingeon had a message for Nelson. Since early spring, there were algae blooms, then more than 350 dead fish and now the foam. “This fish kill will probably go down as one of the largest fish kills (we’ve had). And then the foam issue, I’m not sure if anybody knows what is going on,” said Armingeon.
Nelson asked if the fish deaths and the foam might all be part of the cycle of an algae bloom. The algae robs the water of oxygen and it kills fish and then when the algae breaks down, the foam is part of the biodegradation. It’s caused by too many nutrients in the river, but it’s not an unusual occurrence.
But Armingeon pointed out the fish didn’t die from algae toxins or lack of oxygen. “These are all signs that the river is sick, that it can’t assimilate what is being fed into it,” he told Nelson
Nelson recalled he had run the length of the river in an airboat in 1974, more than 200 miles over three days, from its source to Jacksonville. He said he was shocked during the trip to learn there were 75 outlets in Jacksonville where raw sewage was dumped directly into the river. He said that compared to 1974, the river has been cleaned up. “But you are telling me we still got so many nutrients in the river that it is causing the river to have this reaction.,” Nelson said.
It was mostly a metaphorical moment when Nelson lay on his stomach and scooped a jar of foam out of the river. The sample hadn’t been collected by strict scientific protocol and probably wasn’t useful as a test sample. But Nelson was mostly there to let his constituents to know he’s concerned about the algae bloom earlier this year, the fish kill and now the foam. He asked the head of DEP for Northeast Florida if they needed EPAs help to test the foam. No, DEP has all the equipment they need, Strong told him. Nelson talked about the river as a great resource, held the jar of foam up for the cameras, and told the story of his airboat ride up the river more than four times.
There was an undertow in the conversation between Armingeon and Nelson. Armingeon wants federal regulation to decrease tthe amount of nutrients like nitrogen and phosphorus allowed to be dumped in the river. To comply with the Clean Water Act, the state’s farmers, citrus growers, industries and residents will have to change the way they use fertilizers and chemicals.
The United States Department of Environmental Protection has agreed as part of a court settlement to develop rules to govern the maximum level of nitrogen and phosphorous allowed in Florida rivers, creeks and streams. The lawsuit was filed 12 years ago by environmental organization including the St. Johns Riverkeeper. The lawsuit said EPA failed to enforce the Clean Water Act in Florida by letting the state set its own standards.
Next week, a phalanx of legislators, lobbyists and representatives from the fertilizer and agrichemical agricultural, citrus and sugar industries will travel to Washington to lobby members of Congress to take more time on the federal rules, to do new research, to adopt looser standards, and lobby to circumvent the ruling that put the feds in charge.
By October 15, EPA is supposed to establish rules for the state’s fresh water bodies. Asked whether EPA or the Congress has the will to force the citrus growers and farmers on the southern portion of the St. Johns River to reduce their fertilizer and chemical runoff, Nelson said yes, but . . . “There is a need for more accurate data and what I have done with regard to the farms and ranches and citrus groves is to ask, and EPA, they have agreed, to go out for additional data before they make their final ruling.”
Nelson referred Folio Weekly to a staff member for more information on exactly what was wrong with the data EPA has developed. But that information wasn’t available Friday.
Armingeon’s reaction to any talk of postponing the setting of nutrient standards was to say that polluters always think it’s right to postpone because they don’t want to have to change the way they do business.
A bad sign that the state wants to minimize problems in the St. Johns in order to protect the status quo arrived in a press release from the Jacksonville office of the state Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. It was entitled, “Fish Kills Common This Time of Year.”
— Susan Eastman







